Submit to Divine Discipline
Jeremiah 19:1?21:14
I can hear Mama now, “This hurts me worse than it hurts you.” I never believed that until my children came along. No matter what the problem my children had, when the discipline came, I hurt.
In Luke 15 is the story of the prodigal son. It is as much about the father as it is the son.
Any parent who has difficulty with a rebellious teen, or a parent who watches an adult child walk down a road that leads to pain and suffering, will tell you of the pain. Why? Because the motive of a loving parent is not pay back, but to help the child they love get back into a right relationship with them.
So it was with God as He watched Judah, even after the warning 100 years before to Israel and the takeover by the Assyrians.
Now Judah had not listened to the warnings of judgment through Jeremiah. The sins of idolatry and the hardened hearts without any signs of repentance were taking the people of Judah down a road they would not get back from without hurt and damage to Jerusalem. Jeremiah announced judgment, and in so doing was abused, publicly ridiculed and laughed at – and he finally told God to pour it on.
The message burned in Jeremiah and he continued to preach repentance, but the Babylonian leader paid no attention to the warnings. After King Josiah began some restoration to what God wanted, four other kings followed, none of which would lead the nation to repentance.
King Zedekiah became the puppet of Babylon and the poster child for rebellion against God. Pride was the root of who he was. Finally God would use Babylon and the Chaldeans as His instrument of discipline against Judah.
Things to consider:
– This continues to be a picture of a loving God in pursuit of His prodigal people — not to pay them back, but to win them back.
– A Holy God is patient and will give every chance to return to Him. He only wants our trust.
– There, however, are limits, and a Holy God must punish sin.
– Everything God does, including discipline, is helping us get to His loving, protective, caring arms.
Note: Rebellion does not happen all at once but in stages. The prodigal son left home in his head before he left with his feet. So it is with us; we walk down a road, and if we continue, discipline will come – sometimes from the hand of God, sometimes from others, sometimes we simply reap what we sow.
Where are you? Where is your church? Where is our country?
Barker– Lessons by Ron Barker, evangelism and prayer strategist for the evangelization and missions team of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Barker also taught evangelism at Southwestern Seminary.